Mets Pummel Marlins Early And Often

Baseball

By Associated Press
April 3, 2008

MIAMI — Ryan Church and David Wright each homered, Carlos Beltran had three doubles and the Mets pounded out 17 hits in a 13-0 rout of the Florida Marlins last night.

Church had three hits and drove in three runs, and every Mets starting position player had at least one hit and scored at least once.

Oliver Perez allowed five hits over six scoreless innings to pick up his a win in his season debut. Nelson Figueroa, whose contract was purchased from Triple-A New Orleans prior to the game to replace the injured Pedro Martinez, pitched a perfect inning. Pedro Feliciano and Billy Wagner finished up the six-hitter.

Martinez was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of a left hamstring strain before the game. Wright's three-run homer off Lee Gardner capped a five-run sixth inning.

Andrew Miller took the loss, giving up five runs and eight hits over 4 1-3 innings in his Marlins debut. Miller was acquired from Detroit in the offseason.

The Mets jumped on Miller to take a 3–0 lead in the second, highlighted by Church's two-run homer.

Beltran appeared to hit a two-run home run off relief pitcher Matt Lindstrom in the fifth. The ball looked like it cleared the right-field wall and bounced off a railing and back onto the field. It was initially ruled a home run by third base umpire Jeff Kellogg. The umpires discussed it and crew chief Rick Reed ruled it a ground-rule double. It drove in Wright to make the score 5–0.